Milwaukee: Two Banner Drops in Solidarity with RNC Arrestees and Greek Rioters

Two banners were dropped today in Milwaukee on Saturday December 13th. They read “SOLIDARITY MEANS ATTACK: this is global social war” and “BURN GREECE BURN: Alex was here.”

This action happens on a declared day of solidarity with those who were arrested at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, as well as marking the 8th day of an ongoing historic uprising spreading throughout Greece, opening up our futures with their tangible present. Last week Greek police murdered 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos whose death symbolized both the entire repressive apparatus of the state and also the courage of those who find themselves in conflict with it willfully. The situation forced upon the hundreds of RNC arrestees, who find themselves at the merciless whim of the state can be viewed similarly. Thusly the conditions responsible for forcing it upon them should be dealt no less mercy.

If we are to view solidarity as a direct and continuous conflict with the walls and prison guards that enforce the prison of our conditions, then the developing situation in Greece and the current generalization of their social struggle provide us with invaluable lessons. Their lesson plan has been taught with burning cities, not as a means of securing demands or reacting to certain systematic injustices, but as a realization that the only way to ensure that not another 15 year old boy will be shot dead by police is through the elimination of their means to do so.

Our incendiary device is the generalization of our struggles, it is to connect out of our collective isolation as an ungovernable multiplicity ensuring with our own weathered hands that one day our friends, some now facing potential prison time for their alleged actions during the RNC, will never again go to prison, because there will be no more prisons.

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All around Greece, there are thousand cases of people having been subjected to harassment and brutality by the Greek police (in police stations and on the streets, while going out or returning home, during non-violent demonstrations and concerts, war of words, war of eggs or war of stones), and at least hundreds have witnessed the police’s preference for attacking peaceful or underage protesters, passer-bys, and people with cameras. [1]

At this stage (December 25th), around 246 people face trial and 66 have been detained. At least 50 immigrants are to be deported and more than 50 are school students of which 17 “arrested under the terrorist act” (Larisa city) [2].

Myrto’s case is a common and plain example of abuse, which shows clearly that what’s going on is not only a tit for tat game between political groups [3]. Since the above is a remarkably convenient explanation, and has been extensively used in order to distort facts (or by accident) [4], it is important to be cautious of how we name things and stick to the facts.
I can understand the enthusiasm of antiauthoritarian minds, the vindication and pride that people who have been fighting for freedom and human rights feel while keeping up with the Greek resistance, but we should not be carried away by our identification with the arrested people (and all those who have been abused but not face trial) and naming them according to what they represent to us. Even though, for instance, the new Greek generation may inflame our hopes for a word-wide awaking and boost faith in our power against the brain-washing, fear-promoting establishments, it is misleading to politically define a revolt that has not been self-defined yet. Subjective views like “anarchists lead the way to a new era” or even “hundreds of schools occupied by groups of political-minded youngsters” (coming mainly by supporters in other countries) may give more grounds to those (like the representatives of the neo-Nazis in the Greek parliament or plenty of misinformed TV viewers across Europe) who insist that the mass uprising has been instigated by a minority with specific political views.

Myrto’s case (among hundreds) is an attack on fundamental freedom.
It is important not to deform this.

[4] E.g. Media rarely presented the riots and the murder in chronological order, the killed boy was defined as “young activist” (implying a political and potentially violent confrontation between him and his killer), there was a preference in showing specific colours, flags and symbols among demonstrators, and the continuous (>18 days) upheaval made equal to the damages and looting that took place within the first 3 days, or to just the riots around the occupied polytechnic school of Athens (ongoing). Meanwhile, both the far-right and the Stalinist parties have explicitly blamed intellectuals and the left-greens for promoting violence.

[5] “… Stop watching! get out there!”: written on the banners raised by young protesters while being live broadcasted on December 16th after taking over the controls. This is what people watched on their TVs (nation-wide free reception): http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EtReIz5xWms